


The Seeds of Spring

by Lady_Ganesh



Category: Greek and Roman Mythology
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-03
Updated: 2012-03-03
Packaged: 2017-11-01 00:59:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/350239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Ganesh/pseuds/Lady_Ganesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every season holds the key to the next, and Persephone knows them all. Thanks to chomiji for betaing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seeds of Spring

**Author's Note:**

  * For [via_ostiense](https://archiveofourown.org/users/via_ostiense/gifts).



Summer is ending. The golden light of fall has started, and Persephone welcomes it even as she mourns the season slipping away. Her arms are still bare, and she can keep her hair loose.

The Summerlord calls to her, and she tarries a bit before she goes to meet him. The grass still crunches green under her feet, but her power is retreating, sinking beneath the earth. Winter will be long this year and bitter, she guesses. More souls for Hades' realm. More fuel for the spring.

"You are late," he says, when she comes to him.

"Are you still in such a hurry, my lord?"

He smiles, taking her in his arms, tanned dark by the summer sun. "I don't have much time left, do I? Better to spend it with you, Daughter of the Earth."

She returns his smile. "You'll be mine forever soon," she says.

He is handsome this year; the gods do not always favor her so. His curls are thick and dark, and his eyes are the blue of the sea. "Be mine," he says, "for just a little while longer."

"Of course," she says, and lets him pull her down to the warm surface of the earth.

 

  


 

Hades is always cold and dark. Persephone shivers as she walks onto the barge. She opens her palm and shows Charon the toll for the Summerlord; the five pomegranate seeds her maidens had taken from his stomach, after the sacrifice. As she had suspected, the winter will be long and bitter.

Charon nods in understanding. The Summerlord will already be in her quarters, ready to serve, his power at her disposal. She has other duties now.

Hades smiles when she comes to his chamber. "You always bring the light to my realm," he says, touching her dark, thick hair. "How is this year's sacrifice?"

"Handsome," she answers. They are far past jealousies now. "He'll do well." He had died with a smile on his face, the maidens said.

"Do you remember?" Hades asks. "When we first met?"

She raises her eyebrow. "How could I forget?" One moment there had been sunlight, the next darkness, and the pounding of hooves. He had not touched her, though, until the seeds slipped past her lips. _Now you are mine,_ he had said, _and flowers will finally bloom in Elysium._

 _I don't have enough power to make anything grow here,_ she had said.

 _I am sure,_ he had answered, _that we can find a solution._

Persephone smiles now, and lets her husband embrace her.

**Author's Note:**

> Wikipedia noted that the Persephone myth likely came from other, older agrarian myths, where the summer/spring goddess would take the god of the new year as a lover (and he, of course, would be sacrificed for the harvest). I then went a little wild with it all.
> 
> The icon comes from a photo by avitechwriter on Flickr, published under a Creative Commons license.


End file.
